From self-driving vehicles to 'smart' estates, Singapore is always keen to harness new technology in order to become a Smart Nation. The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) is jumping on the techno bandwagon by implementing technology that has the potential to change the way prison officers work.

A prison of the future

In an exclusive interview with GovInsider, Singapore Commissioner of Prison, Soh Wai Wah, revealed that plans to use video analytics and facial recognition programmes might begin as early as 2017. Such technology will take over the roles of guarding and escorting inmates around the prison complex, enabling officers to shift their attention to other work such as rehabilitation of offenders - a big part of prison work. Apart from video analytics and facial recognition software, SPS is also using data analytics to assess how statistically likely an offender will re-offend. Assigning a score will then determine which rehabilitation programme is most suitable for the offender.

Focus on rehabilitation

According to the SPS, the rehabilitation process starts as soon as the offender enters prison. Which is why the use of technology will free up prison officers to focus on rehabilitation work which requires more of the human touch - reading body language, verbal communication with offenders, for example.

This is not the first time the SPS has embraced the use of technology in their rehabilitative work. The SPS received an award for the Most Innovative Use of Infocomm Technology (Public Sector) at the National Infocomm Awards 2012 for the use of self-help kiosks. The Inmate Self Service Kiosk, or iKiosk in short, enables inmates to conduct simple functions such as letter form printing and checking of request statuses on their own.

In time, as technology plays an increasingly bigger role in the SPS, the work of a prison officer will also change - and this is what Soh expects - to become more "interesting, compelling, and purposeful", one that places an increasing emphasis on social skills and heart.

H/T to GovInsider

Top photo taken from gov.sg

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